Linguistic Pet Peeves

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Okay, y'all. In spite of what some people will say, your use of language will influence what people think of you, and how intelligent and/or competent they think you are.

My current number one: You don't LOOSE your license, you lose it. (If your license is loose, you need to capture it...)

Don't even get me started on loosing YOU'RE license...

What are other some other linguistic "nails on chalkboard" for folks?

When people say they "seen" something. Or when people say that a situation or event will occur "on tomorrow".

Please stop talking.

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hahahahahahaha "AX" - that makes me cringe. I'm starting to hear that more often, I don't know why.

other mispronunciations I hear often:

paradigm shift - I've heard it pronounced as para dig em...from members of upper management.

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Y'all is not a word, or even a proper contraction.

In my biggest magnolia sweetened smile.... Then honey you must not be from the South..... Y'all --you all is very much a word reflective of our local color and regionalism.

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Specializes in Psychiatric.
SO MANY.

One that hasn't been covered yet is "could of" instead of "could've" and other ways the person spells something close to what it sounds like, but the words mean totally different things. I'm even FB friends with a guy who's used "to" to mean "also" several times.

I judge differently based on context; if this is a work email or bulletin then you'd darn well not be posting a paper with one giant sentence about the new "scheudle." I don't judge message boards too much because I often post from my phone and it changes/misses things that I don't notice.

I still have a photo of the "new scheudle" bulletin.

Incorrect use of whom! Language evolves and I don't fuss about people solely using who, but if you don't know when it should be whom, for the love of Pete just say who.

I found a file at work the other day with the title 'Hospital Addmishons'. what!?!?

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I could list a a zillion ... I'm a bit eccentric, but I also lament what's happened to the language, and to the average person's writing skill(s). The 'we're nurses, not writers' comments - I heard the same thing when I was a programmer - doesn't hold any water. Everyone used to be able to write better. 100 years ago, soldier's letters written home were generally written better than a lot of what I see today, whether someone has a degree or not.

But just for one ... I've heard several nurses say 'exasperated' when they mean 'exacerbated'.

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I've said this before and got a couple of people upset, but I can't stand when people pronounce the t in the word often. I'm not saying it's wrong, necessarily. I've seen arguments both ways. So, I get that you can say it either way. It just personally bugs me. No one says moisTen or sofTen or lisTen or fasTen, but they say ofTen. Of course, I never say anything when someone says it that way. It just makes me squint for a second.

I always pronounce the T in all of those words

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

It been itching me. I can't stop itching it.

stop. Just stop. Both the misuse AND the scratching!

Oh, and I love 1776! When I upgraded my VHS to DVD, they had restored an entire song and dance sequence, and lots of connecting scenes that made the flow make much more sense. The "extra features" talk about it being put on in the White House for Nixon, and the director cutting the entire conservative "Always to the Right" sequence out of deference to Nixon.

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I have to admit I find most of these cringe worthy. I rarely will correct anyone but I really, really want to. (Except the use of y'all. That's just common language where I'm from. Texas.) Both my mom and my mother-in-law have a habit of saying words incorrectly. It drives me nuts! But out of respect for each of them, I just bite my tongue.

This one caused me to spit coffee all over my computer screen! Too funny!

I'm usually very careful about proof reading what I write and more than a little OCD about things like proper spelling, grammar, word usage, etc.. It's not uncommon for me to edit a post if I notice after submitting it that I have made an error. Am I the only one that is that obsessive-compulsive?

We have a gentleman at work that always used to say he would be OCD except the letters were out of order. Then I took my nursing psychology class and came in to work to inform him he was right he wasn't OCD he had obsessive compulsive personality disorder. The guys had fun telling him that he had a personality disorder for awhile.

Of of course I also periodically call my grandfather just to throw in "me and whoever" did something because it drives him nuts.

I hate it when people worsh their hands in the zink. What does it mean to worsh? Zink is a metal.

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Due/do they are not interchangeable.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I will never accept "orientated" as legitimate. NEVER I SAY.

"Loose" (for "lose") and "advise" (for "advice") are two that never fail to annoy. The "we're nurses, not writers" thing holds no water for me; this is a site for professionals to talk to each other so maybe refrain from posting as if you're updating your Facebook wall.

Not going to lie, when I read a post about wanting to be a nurse/trying to get into nursing school/taking the NCLEX for the eighth time and it's lousy with misspellings and grammatical errors I am judging so hard :bored:

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^ I did that recently. someone was writing about their nclex experience and wrote pneumonic when they meant mnemonic ... and I became that guy who corrected them.

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Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.

Mammyogram for mammogram, drives me crazy. And we've all heard Phenergren for Phenergan :(

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